Nintendo Dominates List of Top-Selling Games in Japan for 2014

Just this week we've learnt that, in its launch week alone, Yokai Watch 2: Ganso / Honke has become the top-selling game in Japan for 2014 to date, an outstanding achievement for Level 5's dual release. It's also reflective of a year of modest overall sales, but Nintendo has still enjoyed the best results from a hardware and software perspective in its homeland.

Famitsu Weekly — via Kotaku — has published 2014's top-50 selling games in Japan, covering 1st January to 29th June. It's a list dominated, particularly in the top 10, by releases on 3DS, with the occasional Wii U title sneaking in. The first Yokai Watch is unsurprisingly at number one while Mario Kart 8 is the top-selling home console game in fourth place, with well over half a million sales in the country. The top 50, with Famitsu's figures for the relevant period, is below.

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Welsh ex-pat Tom is responsible for the day-to-day running of the site. He's the guy to thank for the generally brilliant nature of the content which massages your eyeballs on a daily basis. Also has an unhealthy obsession with all things Bowser.

@SetupDisk I think it's because of the PS4 bundle it came with, but I have to say that Knack is not a very good game. It was fun for about half an hour and then became really boring for the rest of the time I played it, so watch out for used game areas overflowing with copies of Knack

So funny, I was going to comment on Knack also, Being a pack in must be nice

I have to say this is a really weird stat though - Jan 1st - June 30th sales. I know Japan isn't the US, but we are looking at the slowest videogame months. I'ld be much more interested in either the last 6 months or the year as a whole. Really just lifetime game sales is the only thing that makes sense.

Wii U should be relatively happy though, minus the packed in Knack PS4 has no game in the top 30. Considering the system launched in Feb in Japan it should have had a few big sellers if the hype was to be believed. While Sony is spouting off about Wii owners upgrading to PS4 I really wonder if Wii owners have all been migrating to the cheaper PS3 instead of Wii U? PS3 weekly sales aren't too bad considering it's been out for 7 1/2 years in Japan.

Just noticed no Disney Infinity or Skylanders, nor any Wii game. No Just Dance either.

Which makes me think this is an even weirder stat b/c it's broken out by console but games like those are sold on several systems so their sales combined might be higher than some of these. Not near the top but maybe in the 30s and 40s. Either that or nobody buys them after Jan 1 as they are likely to be holiday gifts. Or the Japanese don't like toy games. Which might explain why amiibo don't have their own game in Japan.

I'm very impressed by Kirby: Triple Deluxe's numbers. Even Mario Party: Island Tour did very well, and that's one of the weakest installments in the series. Mario Kart 8's big launch isn't surprising at all, but still nice to know.

@rjejr I think Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is only available on the Wii U in Japan, and the other versions are not out at all. The same with Disney Infiinity only being on the Wii U and 3DS in Japan (according to Wikipedia). I also seem to remember reading somewhere that Wii Fit is popular in Japan just for the daily body test feature.

Surprised at how well Kirby Triple Deluxe has done...I mean, I do honestly like most of the Kirby games and I've bought it myself, but started playing it recently and it is just..,,'eh' :/ It really doesn't innovate much on the other Kirby games at all, not like Canvas Curse or Mass Attack which were something different and great fun. In fact, Triple Deluxe actually feels like a step backwards from Squeak Squad in some ways.

Now Yokai Watch 2 already sales more than Yokai Watch, and there is no doubt that Pokemon ORAS, Monster Hunter 4g and Super Smash Bros. will book their positions in the second half year. I think 3DS will continue dominating the top 10 at the end of this year, but the question is how many Wii U titles left (MK8 probably can still be the top 10 for the whole 2014 ranking, but not sure if SSB Wii U version can be one of the top 10)

@ToxieDogg Play it to the end, it has the best use of background and foreground mechanics to date and the min games are awesome. Its a solid Kirby game that reaffirms what's great about the series. It doesn't innovate a great deal but it doesn't need to in order to be a great game. Just my 2 cents.

@Emblem It's a decent game, but I'm just surprised it's sold so much compared to some of the other games on that list and how niche Kirby usually is. The mini games are OK (Kirby Fighters feels like a taster for what Super Smash Bros 3DS will be like ) but the main Story Mode levels don't seem to have very much to explore in them...I'm only nearly halfway through (up to World 3) but I've had no trouble finding all the Sun Stones and Rare Gold Keychains on every stage on my first playthrough so far....could just be because I'm so used to how Kirby games work now though, same as I've never found any Zelda game as tough as A Link To The Past (first one I played). The level designs are improving as it goes along to be fair, I really liked the section with the Waddle Dee Trains coming towards the screen A couple of the new copy abilities are a bit silly though (Bell Kirby? lol)

@ToxieDogg I get you you mean, for Kirby Vets it may seem abit samey since their isn't a major gimmick or revision but try not to expect any amazing innovation and you'll have a blast by the time you get to the end of it .